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PREGAME: Rd 04 vs West Coast

Demonland
Demonland
in Melbourne Demons

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7 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

McVee had 18 at 88% efficiency yesterday. No way we are dropping him. 

He's pretty much the Salo role at the moment. Cool, composed and target hitting. 

    • Like 9
     
    25 minutes ago, layzie said:

    He's pretty much the Salo role at the moment. Cool, composed and target hitting. 

    I would go as far as saying he is doing it better than Salem. Salem wasn't great last year.

    • Like 7
     
    5 minutes ago, Nelo said:

    I would go as far as saying he is doing it better than Salem. Salem wasn't great last year.

    Salem struggled with injury all year.

    Once he is back they need to give Salem a solid training block, plus 3-4 games at Casey before he is up for selection in my view.

    A fully fit and firing Salem is in our best side still.

    • Like 8

    I hate to be the person who is overly confident, but we really should be tearing the eagles apart next week. They still have most of their forward line intact (Allen, Darling, Waterman), so they are still potent if the  ball gets in there quick. 

    Given we will be expected to win and by a long way, what is the pass mark? 4pts? 10 goals? 100 pts? 

     

    • Like 1

    I'm with a few of you with Brown out (injured or rested) and Kozzy in. We will be quick and ball movement will be awesome. No other changes unless injury wise. 

    • Like 1

    Its a day game too so they cant throw the off switch on the light towers.  re 2021.

    Pickett in . BB rest.

    • Like 1
    31 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

    I hate to be the person who is overly confident, but we really should be tearing the eagles apart next week. They still have most of their forward line intact (Allen, Darling, Waterman), so they are still potent if the  ball gets in there quick. 

    Given we will be expected to win and by a long way, what is the pass mark? 4pts? 10 goals? 100 pts? 

     

    They will be playing half a WAFL side so 50-60 points would be par I reckon

    • Like 2
     

    We have a 5 hour flight to Perth followed by a short turnaround with another flight to Adelaide.

    It would be madness not to manage players right now who are not 100%. 

    We should beat both West Coast and Essendon comfortably if we bring our game, and our method should stack up even if Brown is having a rest, or Viney takes a week off to get his knee right etc.

    If Hibbo is sore, and we know he is going to be important when we play sides with really good mid sized forwards, then why risk him? He's on the wrong side of 31 and has a history of calf issues. Who at West Coast scares you so much that we cannot contain them without Hibbo? Ryan would be one perhaps, but I don't even know if he'd be fit enough. I saw him barely walking around in the last quarter. 

    I would stick with Petty and JVR up forward for at least the next fortnight. If Essendon stack their forwardline with talls, then we could bring in Tomlinson, but Wright is still out for a while, so it seems unlikely. Likewise West Coast are running with Darling as their main tall, and so I am confident May and Lever can get the job done.

    Goodwin said post match that we want to find out some things early in the season. We have a plethora of kids who are showing plenty at the moment, and Kosi who is starting to make the midfield role his own. 

    It's going to be a selection headache coming up, but one thing is certain, we should not risk anyone who isn't 100% fit!

    Edited by Jaded No More

    • Like 7

    I think it may be unlucky Sparrow to sub and Pickett in.

    Like the idea of using any of Tommo, Turner or Hib depending on the oppo forward line.

    • Like 1

    I don’t understand why people are determined to get the fwd line back to exactly how it was in 2021. We can do it but it won’t win us the flag this year. 

    • Like 7
    14 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

    Petty and Tomlison, replaced today with Hibbo and May. We've had 7 defenders in every game, we can't pick 6 and just go with she'll be right.

    It was interesting to see Rivers in the midfield rotations yesterday. I don't know if that was because he was playing on a specific person and followed him in there or not. But I can't recall us in the Goodwin era ever using one of the nominal seven defenders in a midfield role.  

    As to changes, Pickett for Chandler who becomes the sub with Melksham being omitted. It's tough on Chandler, but he's effectively playing the Pickett role. If Brown is injured or needs to be rested, I'd bring in Tom McDonald. If Hibberd is injured or needs to be rested, I'd bring in Tomlinson. 

    Edited by La Dee-vina Comedia
    typo

    If Pickett plays in the middle for some time I guess maybe Sparrow comes out. Tough call.

    • Like 1
    7 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

    It was interesting to see Rivers in the midfield rotations yesterday. I don't know if that was because he was playing on a specific person and followed him in there or not. But I can't recall us in the Goodwin era ever using one of the nominal seven defenders in a midfield role.  

    As to changes, Pickett for Chandler who becomes the sub with Melksham being omitted. It's tough on Chandler, but he's effectively plating the Pickett role. If Brown is injured or needs to be rested, I'd bring in Tom McDonald. If Hibberd is injured or needs to be rested, I'd bring in Tomlinson. 

    I see Rivers as an evolution of Hibberd's lock-down role and taking on aspects similar to Maynard from the Pies, who is a real tough 1:1 medium defender that can also hurt you on the rebound. 

    He still has a way to go to reach his full potential, but to me, that is his role and one if nailed, will be a real weapon in the years to come. 

    • Like 6

    It'll be interesting to see what they do with lessons from last season around managing the team.

    For mine, I'd be brining in Kossie, and making Sparrow the sub. Melk to have a full game at Casey.

    Then BBB and Hibbo out, with thoughts of both coming back in Adelaide the week after. I'd actually bring in Schache to provide ruck support (along with JVR) and Howes to debut. Ideally we'd have a decent lead in the 3rd quarter and then bring Sparrow on for one of Trac, Oliver or Viney.

    Gives us a look at what Schache can offer, and a new guy to bring into the extended squad, I think we need at least 32 - 35 guys who are capable of playing at AFL level this year, and with only Max, Salem and Harmes out injured and TMac, Tommo and Laurie having played but now at Casey we're still sitting at 29 who are known quantities so far.    

    • Like 2

    13 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

    It was interesting to see Rivers in the midfield rotations yesterday. I don't know if that was because he was playing on a specific person and followed him in there or not. But I can't recall us in the Goodwin era ever using one of the nominal seven defenders in a midfield role.  

    As to changes, Pickett for Chandler who becomes the sub with Melksham being omitted. It's tough on Chandler, but he's effectively plating the Pickett role. If Brown is injured or needs to be rested, I'd bring in Tom McDonald. If Hibberd is injured or needs to be rested, I'd bring in Tomlinson. 

     

    2 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

    I see Rivers as an evolution of Hibberd's lock-down role and taking on aspects similar to Maynard from the Pies, who is a real tough 1:1 medium defender that can also hurt you on the rebound. 

    He still has a way to go to reach his full potential, but to me, that is his role and one if nailed, will be a real weapon in the years to come. 

    I thought Rivers was one of our best yesterday, and the best game he's played. Given how tight spots are it's good to have another half back (including Brayshaw in this) who can run through the midfield. With Kossie and ANB (maybe Sparrow as well) who can do it as well from the forward half, it's nice to see we can change how our midfield looks during games. 

    • Like 1

    There's probably 4-5 players with some sort of niggle where a game off helps to overcome

    So Kozzie in for a player in that position.  T-Mac & Tomlinson will continue to keep their names in the hat and Howes & Harmes are 2 others that can press for selection

    It's a good problem to have genuine depth and that allows the MC to make non-risky decisions over those who might have a slight doubt about their ability to play out a game

    Nearly every time this sort of dilemma pops up some player (or players) end up being out injured

    1 hour ago, Red and Blue realist said:

    Gives us a look at what Schache can offer,

    He was in the rehab group at Saturday's training.

    I agree with others regarding the back to back interstate trips as a good opportunity to manage some players. 

    Anyone with a niggle should be considered for a relaxing weekend in Melbourne for R4 or R5. 

    This week i'd think 

    Out: BBB (rested) 

    In: Kozzy 

    Sub: Tomlinson 

    There is still some depth if there are any others that could use a rest eg. Viney or Hbberd. Can back in McDonald, Harmes &/or Melksham or blood Howes

    17 hours ago, Gawndy the Great said:

    100% agree. The 3rd tall is the Ruck pinch hitter. 

    We also need to get some games into Turner, should be our 3rd tall of Petty plays up forward.

    Yep agree. 
    May struggled one on one with out the help of Lever. Lever obviously now having to do more one on one himself. Bring in Turner to take Pettys spot and lever back to roaming around. 


    1 hour ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

    It was interesting to see Rivers in the midfield rotations yesterday. I don't know if that was because he was playing on a specific person and followed him in there or not. But I can't recall us in the Goodwin era ever using one of the nominal seven defenders in a midfield role.  

    As to changes, Pickett for Chandler who becomes the sub with Melksham being omitted. It's tough on Chandler, but he's effectively playing the Pickett role. If Brown is injured or needs to be rested, I'd bring in Tom McDonald. If Hibberd is injured or needs to be rested, I'd bring in Tomlinson. 

    We had 8 defenders in the selected 22 so Rivers and/or Brayshaw needed to play midfield minutes.

    For selection I'd bring Kossie and either TMac or Tomlinson in for Melksham and BBB into the 23. Then it's up for grabs whether we go tall or small with the sub.

    18 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

    Brown should have a week off regardless of whether he’s injured or not. Another week to look at Petty and JVR up forward and we can always bring Tmac back. 
    We are heading into a softer patch of the draw and we need to take opportunities to rest our older and most important players. 

    And it makes sense for someone with a crook back to not fly to/from Perth if we’ve got a solid Plan B

    • Like 5

    Would anyone know which day this week the boys are most likely to train at Gosch's? I'm on annual leave and with the weather being so nice would like to ride down on the bike to take a look. 

     

    • Like 2
     

    Another very tough selection week, for all the right reasons though. 

    The changes leading into the Swans game had us going in with one less KP tall than the week before.  So the big question is with Pickett coming in, will we go even smaller and have BBB go out (Rested/back), or maintian the balance and omitt an extemely unlucky small? I think we can go smaller against WCE without McGovern, but past that I'm not sure.  And at some stage Gawn is coming back....

     

    • Like 2
    18 hours ago, DubDee said:

    why would anyone give AF if he gets to 100? he already got to 200 games 

    100 MFC games mean we get dibs on his sperm.

    • Like 4
    • Haha 5
    • Shocked 1

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